During the ceremony, Mayor Neal Pickett read a special message from President Franklin Roosevelt that was broadcast to 115 stations in the US and Canada and short waved to Europe, South America and the Pacific: “Our enemies have given us the chance to prove that there will be another USS Houston, and yet another USS Houston if that becomes necessary, and still another USS Houston as long as American ideals are in jeopardy,” Roosevelt said. “Our enemies have given us the chance to prove that an attack on peace-loving but proud Americans is the very gravest of all mistakes.”

Here’s a few excerpts from the Chronicle’s coverage that day:

With eyes tear-stained from dramatic peaks of emotion in one of the most impressive ceremonies ever witnessed here, some 150,000 persons from Houston and her sister cities Saturday night bade farewell to the 1000 Houston Volunteers, who left on five special trains for naval bases to train for their avowed task of avenging the cruiser Houston.

…

Claud B. Hamill, chairman of the Harris County war bond committee, Saturday announced a drive to sell enough bonds to buy another cruiser Houston. Mr. Hamill said a new cruiser would cost between $17 million and $20 million, which would be collected in addition to the $17 million already pledged by Harris County residents.

…

Lieutenant Beebe then swore in the 1000 volunteers. As he concluded,the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station Band played the national anthem. This was one of the emotional peaks of the ceremony. Men, women and children, jammed around the volunteers, broke into sobs.

Naval officers quickly gave marching orders to the volunteers and they moved off for the Missouri Pacific Station and the waiting trains. Thousands fell in behind them and marched to the station. All along the route the streets were crowded. Many of these, too, were red-eyed from weeping.

…

One of the proudest persons at the Union Station as the 1000-man Houston Volunteer unit of the navy left Saturday night in five special trains for their training station was Mrs. Minnie M. Dotson, 62, of Austin.

She said she had come to Houston to see her son and grandson off with the volunteers. It was the second time she had seen her son, Robert R. Childs, off to war. Her son, she explained, is 43 and was in the infantry in the first world war and his son, Bennie Childs, 17, is with his father in the Houston Volunteer unit. Father and son are from Austin.

“I saw my son go to the last war and he came back and I am sure that he and his son will come back from this one,” she said. As she talked, however, tears streamed down her face at the thought of parting with them.

…

It cost William T. Watson, 45, 1302 Shearn, about $100 to join the Houston Volunteers. Having served in the navy during the last war, Watson tried to join the volunteers, but was rejected because of his teeth. he immediately went to a dentist at his own expense and was accepted. He is single.

“Love of mother, father or any relative is great, but love of country is greater,” Watson said.

Any local historians or longtime residents in the blogosphere who remember this event in Houston or others like it? Please share in the comments.